Rash Love
by LeilaLives
Summary: They left me, alone, to fend for myself. This is what life is like after living in a dream. ArthurxAriadne, slight EamesxAriadne.


**Rash Love**

**Chapter One: Love the Way You Lie**

**By: LeilaLives**

Disclaimer:** Inception and it's characters belong to Nolan.** My _crappy_ minor OC's belong to me. And "Love the way you lie" belongs to Eminem.

* * *

_Just gonna stand there__ and watch me burn_  
_ But that's alright __because I like __the way it hurts_  
_ Just gonna stand there__ and hear me cry_  
_ But that's alright __because I love__ The way you lie_  
_ I love the way you lie_

I wake up, I take a shower, I get dressed, I eat breakfast, I go to work.

I come home, I take a shower, I eat, I sleep.

I wake up.

Somewhere in between I breathe.

Again and again and again.

The days have blurred together and I can seem to find a reason to distinguish between them.

After living in a dream, it's hard to live in reality. It's hard to pretend that it never happened. It's hard to pretend that I never met _them_. That I never met Cobb, Eames, Yusuf, Saito. That I never met Arthur, the epitome of perfection. Well, it's easier to pretend that perfection never existed.

I find myself thinking about them, my team members, ex-partners in crime. Even after years have passed, almost five, not a word spoken with any of them, I still have hope. Hope that one day they will walk through my office door, eager to see me because they have missed me so much. Silly me used to hope that Arthur, my knight in shining armor, would come sweep me off my feet as we ride into the sunset in his shiny black Mercedes Benz.

That day hasn't come.

Maybe I expected too much from them, though I don't see how an occasional visit to see if I'm even alive is "too much."

To say I missed them was an understatement. I _yearned_ for them, well maybe for one of them.

After we arrived in the airport that day, we all went our separate ways. They each had their own form of a goodbye. A wink from Eames, a nod from Cobb, a small smile from Yusuf and merely a glance from Arthur.

A glance, barely an acknowledgment.

I've probably been replaced. After all, how hard could it be to find a decent architect in the 21st century. Imagination is at it's peak, people are creating new things everyday and I'm sure it wouldn't be hard at all to find a person who can create buildings. Probably found a new girl, better, smarter, prettier. And she's probably happy with them, laughing, smiling, creating both beautiful structures in dreams and beautiful memories in reality.

Oh how I envy a woman I never met.

* * *

I enter the office building, the cold air hitting me and awakening my senses. I take the elevator to the 10th floor, exchange pleasantries with my co-workers ("Hello, how are you? How's the kids?") and sit in my cubicle.

I went from dreaming landscapes, creating buildings of massive structure with my mind to sitting in a cubicle.

My anger has turned into a bitter undertone with time. It seems young and innocent Ariadne has turned old and cynical Ms. Black.

Ms. Black.

"Ms Black?"

I look up at the face of my boss, Nicholas Felix, his dark brown eyes facing in me concern. He and his partners own "Felix Architecture Company." Not a very creative name, but the buildings they design are actually not as lacking in creativity. Pretty successful in fact.

I have always wondered what compelled him to hire me. My portfolio wasn't much, after what I like to call "the experience," my imagination seemed to ebb and plateau, eventually becoming useless. It seemed like a sort of mercy that he gave me the job as his assistant, which mostly consisted of pushing papers.

I went to college to end up pushing papers. There's that bitterness...

"Yes ." He then sits on the corner of my desk, an action which peeves me to no end.

"You look a little sick, are you feeling okay?" His hand comes to rest on my hand, gently rubbing it.

Oh right, that's why he hired me. Because I'm female. I guess it doesn't help that my attire isn't that which would stop the harassment. But goddamn it, if dressing the way I dress, skin tight office dresses and all, makes me feel good, then I'll wear them. For me, not for my sleazy boss. The only thing good about him is the fact that he owns the building where I live, so my condo is under his name and I don't have to pay the rent. Though, with the money I got from "the job" I could certainly pay for it myself.

I gently pull my hand from his grasp, keeping my face straight.

"I'm fine, and how's your wife?" He quirks an eyebrow, and then grins.

"She's great, out of the country actually.." I nod and get up from my chair, grabbing a few random papers from my desk.

"Well, I need to fax these so..excuse me." I turned around and walk away but he walks after me.

"Actually, we have a new worker, he will be assisting one of my partners, Mr. Cataldo, and I was wondering if you could show him around, get him acquainted with the job."

I first feel bad for the new guy, then feel a twinge of happiness in the fact that someone will suffer with me. Not much makes me happy these days. My sort of fun has turned into drunken nights and one night stands, not exactly safe, but it keeps me from the boredom of late night television.

"Sure, where is he?" Mr. Felix smiles again, apparently pleased with my little enthusiasm.

"He should be here in about ten minutes, you should meet him in the lobby." I nod and head back to my desk, relieved that our conversation was over. Throwing the papers on my desk, I walk back to the elevator, dreading the fact that I chose to wore pumps and a dress this morning. Maybe I could let the fellow venture the building by himself...

I arrive in the lobby and stare out the large windows, waiting. It's sunny today, no clouds, not that you could see much of the sky when skyscrapers are everywhere. I hear the glass doors slide open and nearly choke on the piece of gum I was chewing.

He looks exactly the same, save for a few gray hairs on the sides of his head. He's dressed in a black pinstripe suit and wearing a blue tie. He's staring at his phone, distracted.

"Eames?" He looks up, startled. We merely stare at each other for what seems like forever. His face then breaks into a large grin and he strides towards me, enveloping me in a hug.

I don't know what to do.

"Ariadne dear, you look great, rather stunning actually." His eyes look up and down my figure and I feel naked and paralyzed.

"Eames." I can only mutter his name before I feel the tears well up in my eyes. All the walls that held back my pent up emotions break and I'm crying.

I'm crying.

"Ariadne, what's wrong?" I assume my hysterical crying is catching the attention of other workers but I don't care. Although Eames seems to, so he leads me into the corner staircase.

"What's wrong?" I push him hard and he falls onto the steps. He sits there and stares at me with wide blue eyes. "You piece of shit, you all left me. I had NO ONE. No one to tell me that what I went through was real. That I wasn't crazy. None of you gave enough damn to even contact me to say hello. What the hell Eames!"

He holds his hands up in surrender and talks to me gently.

"I am so sorry Ariad-"

"Don't lie to me. You don't care. If you cared you would called, wrote, ANYTHING!"

He's silent for a moment, as if he's taking in what I assume to be my very red, teary and puffy face.

"I couldn't."

The statement hangs in the air and stops me in my tirade. My hands drop to my side and I sit beside him.

"Why not?" I'm staring at my hands, my pale fragile hands, hands that used to draw so much. They now spend most of their time scheduling appointments rather then creating.

I look back at his face and he looks troubled. For a forger, Eames actually had a very open an honest face.

"Eames." I'm pleading and his resolve seems to break.

"I was told..not to contact you in any way." He looks cautious as I digest his answer. And then I'm livid.

"Who the fuck told you to stay away?" My voice is quiet and he sighs.

"Well it was more like a group des-"

"Who the fuck told you to stay away Eames?"

"Arthur."

Arthur, the man of my dreams. He told them to stay away. He wanted me alone.

I feel vulnerable, weak. Why would he do that?

"We thought it would be for the better." I flinch, having forgotten for a moment that Eames was there.

"Ariadne."

He gets up and grabs my hand, forcing me up with him. He's looking at me, and I knew that moment that I forgave him the second he walked into that building. I look up at him, even in heels I'm still shorter, and give him a small smile. He smiles back and then hugs me. He smells like cigarettes and cheap cologne. I love it.

I lead him out of the staircase, back into the lobby and press the elevator button 'up.' He's staring at me, so I stare back. He breaks away when the elevator arrives. It seems I've won this round.

"What are you doing here?" I watch him balance his totem in his hand and vaguely remember my own totem, secure under my pillow. It's really the only place where I question reality. I find no use for it in the real world, when I'm working, drinking, or sleeping with some random man. It's only when I wake up from a beautiful dream, filled with Arthur's face, or a terrible nightmare, something akin to what is my reality, that I desperately cling to my totem and flick it on my nightstand.

I fear beautiful dreams more than nightmares.

"A simple extracti-"

"Is the team back together?" We arrive on the 10th floor and I notice the desperation in my voice. He frowns, and I know the answer, but he answers me anyway.

"No, I'm doing this one on my my own." We are quite for a few minutes, walking around the large floor, watching the stares as my co-workers take in the presence of the bulky man.

"So..who's the target?" He grins at my curiosity and he puts his game face on .

"The man who I assume to be your boss, Nicholas Felix."

* * *

Yeah I know it says ArthurxAriadne, that will be the pairing, butttttt he won't come into the story for a while, maybe a few chapters. I kind of want to lead up to their meeting, I didn't want it to be in the first chapter, which may work for some stories, but not for mine. Anyway I shall warn you there will be some minor EamesxAriadne, but Arthur will prevail.

Just not now.

Thanks for Reading

**Reviews=Love**

LeilaLives is out.


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